“I have learned that track doesn’t define me. My faith defines me. I’m running because I have been blessed with a gift.” –Allyson Felix

Ten years ago when I started running seriously, I would never have imagined it becoming so intricately woven into the fabric of my life that not a day goes by when I either don’t run or think about running. Back then, my future mapped out looked pretty simple: humanitarian work, writing at some level, and travel and adventure on the side. The New York City Marathon was to be a bucket list event among a host of others. Today, I remember it as the running event of a lifetime that inspired many others.

I recall completing my first half-marathon and the heady feeling that ensued, but I really didn’t think it would transform into the passion for running that it is today. Life often hits you with nice surprises like that. Eight years ago when I moved to the united States, I moved with a ton of baggage by which I don’t don’t mean suitcases; rather, my issues and a ton of issues on top. In hindsight, running was my saving grace. If you have ever made a major change in life, then you can attest to the life transforming event it is. Because I was in a new environment, where a lot was also new to me, I had to find something that was at once comforting and familiar, but which gave me the opportunity to lose myself and not focus on the uncertainties I was faced with. Enter running – my saving grace – it became my outlet, my escape, my connection, my mode of survival.

Running, I discovered peace, beauty, tranquility, inspiration, challenge and a profound sense of self. Conversely, my future loomed, a blank, uncertain canvas. Many years, runs and races later have added splashes of color and slowly an image is breaking forth. The process has been painstaking: deliberate and tough, but extremely instructional and not a journey I could have completed without my faith. Daily, those runs have taught me that I do not, nor have I ever, run alone. I am immersed in the love of God; whether evident in the trickle of a running stream or the mad rush of a waterfall, the burst of sunrise or the quiet outrageous sunset; He runs with me. In the white mass of winter or the first signs of spring, the solitary morning run or the packed course filled with runners, every step I take, I take with Him. He surrounds me with His presence, covers me with His protection, enfolds me in His love and when the going gets tough, armors me with His strength. He is the wind at my back, the lift in my legs and the power in my stride.